1. Technical Field
Generally, the invention relates to a machine and process for producing pieces of cheese from blocks of compressed curds. Particularly, the invention relates to a cheese extruding machine and process for producing pieces of cheese of an exact net weight from the blocks of compressed curds. Specifically, the invention relates to a cheese extruding machine and process for producing pieces of cheese of an exact weight directly from unaged or semi-aged cheese curds of semi-hard and hard cheeses from which the whey has been drained and compressed to form the cheese blocks.
2. Background Information
Cheese is a common food product used as appetizers such as on crackers and nachos, or cooked in foods such as pizza, lasagna, and a wide variety of other foods too numerous to list. There is a wide variety of cheeses available, including soft cheeses such as cream cheese, semi-hard cheeses such as Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack, Low Moisture Mozzarella, Low Moisture Provolone, Lace Swiss, and various flavor varieties thereof, and hard cheeses such as Romano, Low Moisture Cheddar and Parmesan.
All such cheeses are made primarily from milk to which a starter culture of microbes is added to form cultured milk in a heated mixing kettle. The cultured milk is ripened by heating and stirring, and rennet added to curdle the cultured milk into a mixture of gelatinous curds and liquid whey. The curds in the mixture are cut up in the kettle into smaller curds and the mixture is heated to cook the curds. The mixture is transferred to a curd separation device such as an elongate table which drains the liquid whey from the mixture. The remaining curds on the table with any residual whey clinging to the curds are stirred to lower the pH of the curds. Salt is added to the curds and they are stirred to form salted curds.
The salted curds with residual whey are placed in a cheese forming tower forming a cheese column to compress the curds to remove the residual whey and produce solid cheese. The cheese forming towers are sold by many manufactures and are typically about thirty feet tall in order to form a cheese column of about the same height, and use the weight of the cheese column to expel the residual whey and compress the curds at a lower portion of the cheese column into solid cheese. A guillotine type horizontal cutter is used to chop off the solid cheese into large cheese blocks weighing about 40 lbs. each. The cheese blocks are aged in a cooler for a period of at least 7 days to more than 4 months, depending on the type of cheese being produced. During the aging process the cheese blocks lose water, crack, and lose uniformity of density. Following aging, the cheese blocks are sent to a cheese cutting factory where they are cut up into smaller consumer-size pieces of cheese and packaged such as in plastic wrap or bags. These consumer-size pieces of cheese are typically between about a half-pound to one pound in net weight, though they vary in weight due to the lost water, cracks, and non-uniform density caused by the aging process.
Although the current cheese production machines and processes are adequate for the purpose for which they were intended, they have some serious shortcomings. Firstly, the consumer size pieces of cheese vary considerably in weight. This results in time-consuming hand-weighing of the individual pieces of cheese, or additional cost by cutting the pieces of cheese slightly larger than necessary to assure a minimum net weight. Secondly, the process is not a continuous process from curd to consumer-size pieces of cheese production, with the aging period which interrupts the production cycle. The aging of the cheese blocks also requires large areas of costly refrigerated storage space often for many months for each batch of cheese blocks.
Therefore, the need exists for an improved cheese production machine and process which produces the pieces of cheese of an exact weight directly from large cheese blocks. The machine and process should eliminate storage and aging of the large in-process-sized cheese blocks for later cutting into consumer-sized pieces of cheese. The machine and process should utilize existing machinery to save on machinery costs. The cheese produced should final age after packaging substantially without changing net weight.